Uber and Chinese company Pony.ai are gearing up to launch a robotaxi service for Europe, starting with Zagreb in Croatia. The companies are working with Croatian company Verne, which will provide the service ecosystem and operational framework for the service. They’re using Arcfox Alpha T5 vehicles made by Beijing-based automaker BAIC Motor powered by Pony.ai’s Gen-7 autonomous driving system. Initially, the autonomous rides will be offered on Verne’s app, but they will eventually be available through Uber.
In their announcement, the companies said they have already started on-road testing in Zagreb, where the service will be available “soon.” They’re hoping to expand it to other European cities in the future, and then to more markets, with the goal of deploying a fleet with thousands of robotaxis over the next few years. Verne will be in charge of securing regulatory approval for the rollouts, while Uber has agreed to invest in the Croatian company.
This is but one of Uber’s partnerships centering around its efforts to offer more and more driverless rides to its passengers. Just earlier this month, it announced that it was launching a pilot program for a robotaxi service in Tokyo in late 2026 with Nissan and UK self-driving startup Wayve. Uber also started offering robotaxi rides to passengers in Las Vegas at the same time. The fleet deployed in the city is made up of Hyundai Ioniq 5 autonomous EVs, developed in partnership with Motional.
Mate Rimac, the founder of Croatian electric vehicle maker Rimac Group, started working on electric robotaxis seven years ago. Now, part of his vision is coming to fruition through a strategic partnership between Uber, Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai, and his own robotaxi startup Verne.
The three companies announced plans Thursday to launch a commercial robotaxi service in Europe, starting in Zagreb, Croatia. Pony.ai will supply the autonomous driving system and a robotaxi called the Arcfox Alpha T5 that was developed with Chinese automaker BAIC. Verne will own and operate the fleet, and Uber will provide its vast ride-hailing network.
The ride-hailing giant also indicated it intends to invest an undisclosed amount into Verne and support future expansion as a strategic partner.
The companies didn’t provide a specific launch date for the commercial service, though on-road testing in Zagreb — where Rimac Group is based — is already underway.
Verne doesn’t have the same name recognition as Waymo or Tesla — at least not in the United States. But it has the same outsized ambitions.
Verne started in 2019 as a project called Project 3 Mobility (or P3) within Rimac Group, a growing ecosystem of companies that includes hypercar maker Rimac Bugatti, Rimac Energy, and Rimac Technology. Mate Rimac holds a 23% stake in the group.
There were occasional updates about the project, but it wasn’t until July 2024 — when Verne launched with 100 million euros in funding — that the public got a more detailed look at its plans.
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Rimac’s vision has always been for Verne to operate an urban robotaxi service with purpose-built two-seater electric vehicles. That might sound like an odd mission for the person behind the Nevera, an electric hypercar that starts around $2.2 million. But as he explained to this reporter a couple of years ago, Rimac was never interested in making a high-volume EV that humans would drive — precisely because he believes that autonomous vehicle technology will make that business obsolete.
“It will take a while, but it’s coming; I’m sure about that,” he’d told me at the time.
Verne isn’t developing its own self-driving system. Instead, the company is focused on the urban electric vehicle, the ride-hailing app, and the back-end infrastructure to manage the fleet, including cleaning and maintenance.
Verne plans to produce its robotaxi EVs at a new factory in Lučko, Croatia, expected to begin operations later this year.
Verne hasn’t launched the two seaters yet, nor did it provide an update on the vehicles in its announcement with Uber and Pony.ai. The company said in November that it had produced and tested 60 verification prototypes.
For now, the Verne robotaxi service will use the Pony.ai-BAIC vehicle, the Arcfox Alpha T5. Users will be able to hail one via Uber as well as through Verne’s own app.
Verne is starting small with its commercial launch, but it has plans to scale to a “fleet of thousands of robotaxis over the next few years,” according to Thursday’s announcement. And its aspirations go far beyond the borders of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia and home to Rimac Group.
“Europe needs autonomous mobility that can move from testing to a real service,” said Verne CEO Marko Pejkovic, in a statement. “At Verne, we are bringing together the technology, platform, and operational capabilities required to make this a reality, starting in Zagreb before expanding to new markets.”
Uber, Nvidia and Mercedes-Benz have joined hands to develop a fleet of luxurious robotaxis based on the German carmaker’s S-Class platform. The companies recently confirmed the collaboration as part of a broader effort to build a global robotaxi ecosystem that combines Mercedes’ luxury sedan with Nvidia’s autonomous driving technology and Uber’s ride-hailing network.
The partnership builds on Uber’s ongoing work with Nvidia announced in October last year, in which Nvidia’s DRIVE AV software and DRIVE Hyperion architecture are being used to make vehicles “level 4 ready.” This means the vehicles will be capable of operating without human intervention in predefined conditions.
Mercedes-Benz says it has selected the new S-Class as the core vehicle for its robotaxi plans, citing the sedan’s advanced engineering and software architecture. The luxury model will be integrated with Mercedes’ proprietary MB.OS operating system, which provides a foundation for partners to build autonomous applications on the vehicle’s computing platform.
There’s no clear launch timeline yet
Uber’s role in this partnership is to integrate these autonomous vehicles into its ride-hailing service, enabling users to summon robotaxi through the Uber app. While no firm launch timeline has been announced, the partnership is aimed at deploying autonomous robotaxi services in several major cities worldwide.
The collaboration comes as competition in the robotaxi space continues to intensify. Companies like Waymo and Tesla have already tested robotaxis on public roads, but the sector faces growing regulatory and safety scrutiny. Waymo, for example, is currently under investigation after multiple incidents of its robotaxis violating traffic laws were reported last year.
New York’s latest state budget includes new disclosure requirements for businesses that use personal data to set different prices for different shoppers — for example, charging you more if you have a history of splurging.
Businesses that use personalized pricing are now required to tell customers, “This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data,” according to The New York Times.
It’s not clear how widespread this practice actually is among online retailers. An Uber spokesperson told the NYT that the company is now showing this disclosure to New Yorkers, although they described the law as “poorly drafted and ambiguous” and insisted that Uber only uses geography and customer demand to calculate its dynamic pricing.
The National Retail Federation filed a lawsuit to stop the law, but a federal judge allowed it to move forward.
Lina Khan, former chair of the Federal Trade Commission and now co-chair of the mayoral transition team for Zohran Mamdani, told the NYT that the law will be an “absolutely vital” tool for the government, but she also suggested there’s a “ton more work to be done” to regulate the practice.
Drivers for ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft will soon have the right to unionize in California as independent contractors, thanks to a bill signed Friday by Governor Gavin Newsom.
This is part of a larger deal between lawmakers, unions, and ride-hailing companies, resulting in the passage of separate bills supporting lower insurance requirements for Uber and Lyft, along with union rights for their drivers. When the deal was first announced in August, Newsom described it as an “historic agreement between workers and business that only California could deliver.”
The Associated Press reports that more than 800,000 drivers will gain the right to join a union and collectively bargain for better pay and benefits. Ramona Prieto, Uber’s head of public policy for California, told the AP in a statement that the two bills “represent a compromise that lowers costs for riders while creating stronger voices for drivers.”
Now through September 30, get 5% Daily Cash when you use the Apple Card via Apple Pay for purchases across the Uber and Uber Eats apps and websites.
5% Daily Cash is limited to $500 in combined Uber and Uber Eats purchases, meaning that the maximum cash back that you can receive from this offer is $25.
Ordinarily, the Apple Card offers 3% Daily Cash for Uber and Uber Eats purchases.
In addition, Apple Card users can continue to receive a six-month free trial of Uber One, by signing up with this link using the Apple Card via Apple Pay. Uber One provides savings and other benefits for both Uber rides and Uber Eats deliveries.
Apple’s credit card is available in the U.S. only.
Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models will feature a number of significant display, thermal, and battery improvements, according to new late-stage rumors.
According to the Weibo leaker known as “Instant Digital,” the iPhone 17 Pro models will feature displays with higher brightness, making it more suitable for use in direct sunlight for prolonged periods. The iPhone 16 Pro and…
Apple will be holding its annual iPhone event on Tuesday, September 9, to unveil the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Assuming that Apple sticks to its familiar pattern, the iPhone 17 series should be available to pre-order starting Friday, September 12 at 5 a.m. Pacific Time / 8 a.m. Eastern Time. The release date for the devices should be one week later, on Fr…
We’re only days away from Apple’s “Awe dropping” fall event scheduled to take place on Tuesday, September 9 – and along with the new iPhone 17 series, we’re going to get a new version of the Apple Watch Ultra for the first time since 2023.
By the time the Ultra 3 is unveiled, it will have been two years since the previous model arrived. The intervening period has left plenty of room for…
iOS 26 introduces an Adaptive Power Mode on the iPhone, alongside the existing Low Power Mode.
Apple says Adaptive Power Mode can make “performance adjustments” when necessary to extend an iPhone’s battery life, including slightly lowering the display brightness, allowing some activities to “take longer,” and automatically turning on Low Power Mode when the iPhone’s remaining battery life…
Apple is set to unveil the iPhone 17 series in just four days from now, and the biggest design mystery surrounding the Pro models has finally been solved.
In a report outlining his expectations for Apple’s event next week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said the iPhone 17 Pro models will have “a new cutout area on the bottom two-thirds of the phone that doubles as the wireless charging area.”…
Apple’s upcoming iPhone 17 Air will have a $1,099 starting price providing 256GB of base storage and will max out at $1,499 with a 1TB option, according to the latest TrendForce report.
Apple will offer three price/storage tiers for the all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model, which replaces last year’s iPhone 16 Plus in the lineup. Here’s how TrendForce sees them breaking down:
256GB — $1099…
Just one week before Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 17 series, an analyst has shared new price estimates for the devices.
Here are J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee’s price estimates for the iPhone 17 series in the United States, according to 9to5Mac:
Model
Starting Price
Model
Starting Price
Change
iPhone 16
$799
iPhone 17
…
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OK, who placed their bet on General Motors being the landing spot for Aurora co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson? Not me. But here we are. A few days after Anderson announced his resignation from his position and the board at Aurora, he spoke to me about his next gig as chief product officer at GM. In short, he will oversee the entire product line of GM’s gas-powered and electric vehicles — a position that will cover the entire life cycle of GM’s portfolio and include hardware, software, services, and user experience.
Anderson couldn’t say too much; plus, he hasn’t started the job yet. Anderson did say he wouldn’t have taken the new job if Aurora had yet to launch its commercial self-driving truck service in Texas.
Let’s jump into the rest of the news.
A little bird
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin
In an absolutely wild turn of events, Luminar’s founder Austin Russell appears to have been pushed out as CEO and board chair. You can read my coverage here, which provides a bit of an overview of how this unfolded, but I know there is so much more to this story. TL;DR: If you were to only read Luminar’s Q1 earnings report, you would assume Russell was still at the helm. A separate press release, released as the company’s earnings went out, announced a leadership change and that Russell had resigned following an ethics inquiry from the board’s audit committee.
Here’s what I’m hearing from a few little birds. The word “blindsided” came up more than once, and the chaos isn’t over. Luminar board member Jun Hong Heng, who is founder and chief investment officer at Crescent Cove Advisors and a mentor of Russell’s, resigned a day later. Heng was also on the audit committee.
Aurora has had an odd couple of weeks filled with highs — driverless commercial service woohoo! — and twists — whoops, there goes a co-founder. To cap things off, Uber announced plans to offer $1 billion in exchangeable senior notes due in 2028 in private placement. As you might expect, stocks dropped after investors got spooked about potential dilution and what this might mean for the value of Aurora’s stock.
Other deals that got my attention …
AutoUnify, the latest startup that has launched out of the Up.Labs-Porsche partnership, raised $5 million in seed money. The Santa Monica, California-based startup, which built an API to allow dealerships and service shops to communicate in real time with the manufacturers and software vendors that power their operations, has been operating quietly for about nine months.
Chinese battery manufacturer CATL is far from a startup. But it’s worth noting this bananas IPO plan. The company wants to raise at least HK$31.01 billion — that’s just shy of $4 billion — in its Hong Kong listing. This is the largest listing globally in 2025.
Here’s a potential deal that has raised some eyebrows. Federal railroad regulators are in talks with Elon Musk’stunneling firm, The Boring Company, over a multibillion-dollar Amtrak project.
Flock Freight, the shared truckload freight brokerage based in California, raised $60 million in a Series E funding round led by O’Neil Strategic Capital. Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, SignalFire, GLP Capital Partners, and Bracket Capital also participated.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin
Autonomous vehicles
Tesla’s plan to launch a robotaxi service in Austin next month has caught the attention of federal safety investigators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation sent the company a detailed list of questions on its upcoming robotaxi service as part of an investigation into how the company’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software operates in low-visibility conditions.
Recalls are starting to pop up more in the AV sector. Last week it was Zoox. Now Waymo has issued a software recall on 1,200 self-driving vehicles after some of its robotaxis were involved in minor collisions with gates, chains, and other gate-like roadway objects.
WeRide seems to be trying to ramp in Guangzhou. The Chinese company said it has introduced eight autonomous robotaxi pilot operation routes in the central part of the city. The company has also started trialing fully driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi.
Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries
General Motors has been working on a new battery chemistry called lithium manganese-rich, which it says should slash costs while delivering driving range. Notably, these LMR batteries dramatically reduce the amount of nickel and cobalt compared with GM’s most advanced cells, two critical minerals that aren’t readily available from domestic sources in the United States.
A footnote in Lucid’s recent Q1 regulatory filing gives a bit more insight into its sales numbers. The EV maker’s record quarter got a lift from rental sales and company leases.
Everyone, let’s give a slow clap to Toyota for redesigning — and more importantly, renaming — its sole all-electric vehicle for the U.S. market. The EV, once called the bZ4X, will now simply be bZ. The original bZ4X was not well received. I’m looking forward to getting behind the wheel to see what improvements Toyota has made. Meanwhile, Toyota has brought back the C-HR nameplate, but this time as an EV. Hopefully this time it’s more successful. It arrives in the U.S. in 2026.
Gig economy
Three years ago, reporter Rebecca Bellan noted that Uber was going through an Amazonification. Her pitch was that the company, like Amazon, had created a closed business loop to feed customers back into other Uber channels. The second part of that evolution has started, she reported this week. Uber appears to be moving beyond its focus on transportation and working to become a convenient super app, an aggregator of services, a daily-use lifestyle platform with its best offerings tucked behind a paywall.
Future of flight
U.S. lawmakers introduced the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act in a bid to revise the FAA’s 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. soil. The timing could be crucial for startup Boom Supersonic, which has made progress in developing next-generation supersonic aircraft
Vertical Aerospace announced a plan to develop a hybrid-electric variant of its VX4, suggesting the company is pursuing opportunities in defense and logistics.
In-car tech
Apple’s next generation of its popular CarPlay infotainment software is finally launching. Reminder: It was first announced three years ago. The new version, called CarPlay Ultra, will make its debut on new Aston Martin vehicles in the U.S. and Canada.
Google is bringing Gemini, its generative AI, to all cars that support Android Auto in the next few months. Patrick Brady, VP of Android for Cars, said Gemini will surface in the Android Auto experience in two main ways.
Ride-share giant Uber filed a lawsuit Friday against DoorDash, accusing the delivery outfit of stifling competition by intimidating restaurant owners into exclusive deals.
Uber alleges in the lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of California, that its chief rival bullied restaurants into only working with DoorDash. Uber claims that DoorDash, which holds the largest share of the food delivery market in the U.S., threatens restaurants with multimillion-dollar penalties or the removal or demotion of the businesses’ position on the DoorDash app.
Specifically, Uber claims DoorDash pressures restaurants to strike exclusive or near-exclusive agreements for first-party delivery services, meaning that DoorDash insists on solely handling orders placed through restaurants’ own websites, says Uber.
“Uber’s case has no merit,” said a DoorDash spokesperson in an email to TechCrunch on Friday. “Their claims are unfounded and based on their inability to offer merchants, consumers, or couriers a quality alternative.”
DoorDash and Uber Eats are best known for their respective apps to connect restaurant, consumers and gig economy workers. Consumers use the apps to find and order food like pizza, egg rolls, or pad thai from restaurants. A gig economy worker then picks up and delivers the food to the consumer.
But the two companies also compete with their own white-label delivery services – called Uber Direct and DoorDash Drive on-Demand – which both launched in 2020. These services are cheaper for restaurants, allowing patrons to order directly from the restaurants’ own apps and websites, while Uber and DoorDash manage the couriers behind the scenes.
Uber claims in its suit that DoorDash handles first-party deliveries for more than 90% of the largest enterprise restaurants in America, and it alleges DoorDash used anticompetitive practices to win the market.
“More than 1 million merchants partner with Uber Eats because we’ve helped them to reach more customers and provided them the freedom to decide how they want to grow their businesses with delivery,” Sarfraz Maredia, head of the Americas for delivery at Uber, said in an emailed statement. “We’ve increasingly heard complaints from restaurants that DoorDash’s tactics are limiting that freedom and punishing them for seeking better options. We hope this filing puts an end to those unfair practices so that restaurants can choose what’s best for them without fear of penalty or retribution.”
In one example from the lawsuit, Uber says that an unnamed “significant restaurant company” told the company it would not move forward with a long-planned rollout of Uber Direct across several of its restaurant brands. The reason, Uber claims, is because DoorDash allegedly threatened to increase the rates it charges the restaurant company to use DoorDash’s third-party delivery services if it continued to use Uber Direct.
Uber says this was not a one-off event, but rather that multiple customer have told the company they feel “like they have a ‘gun to their head,’ that DoorDash is a ‘monopolist,’ and that they are being bullied by DoorDash.”
Uber has requested a jury trial; the company did not specify the amount of damages in the complaint. However, Uber claims these anticompetitive practices have cost the company “millions of dollars in revenue” and also restricted the growth of Uber Direct.
Uber is rolling out concurrent rides in India, a feature that allows users to book up to three trips for any of their contacts, TechCrunch has exclusively learned and confirmed with the company.
The concurrent rides feature is the latest example of Uber developing products that will capture more customers, including those who don’t have the app or even a smartphone. In India, Uber even allows concurrent ride users to pay drivers directly with cash or via the app.
Uber quietly launched the concurrent rides last year in several global markets, including the United States. An Uber spokesperson confirmed the new feature is now available in India and will be rolled out in the country in a phased manner. The spokesperson would not confirm the exact details of the cities in which it is currently available.
“As we understand that one may need to book a ride for their loved one at the same time as they are in an Uber — we launched concurrent rides late last year globally. It allows riders to book and track up to three concurrent rides,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement shared with TechCrunch.
Once a user books a ride for a guest, those trip details can be shared over WhatsApp or a text message. The message contains the driver’s full name, cab model and registration number, Uber’s contact number to reach the driver, a link to track the ride, and a four-digit PIN to start the ride. This eliminates the need for guests to use the Uber app.
The new feature could help Uber expand its market reach. Before the update, Uber was allowing only one ride booking at a time, and users had to request another vehicle after their current trip ends. It also pushes Uber ahead of rivals that were already offering customers to the ability to book concurrent rides.
Uber’s Indian competitor, Ola, which counts Softbank, Warburg Pincus and DST Global among its key investors, has allowed two concurrent rides for some time. However, the experience offered by Ola is limited as it does not allow users to make two bookings simultaneously using a single online payment method. You need to either choose two different online payment methods or pay for your concurrent rides via cash.
